Trial and Error
by Your Unwanted Angel
Summary: There are millions of places like The School all around the globe. Scientists from all over select their best experiments and put them together to see which one fairs the best in a variety of cruel tests and trials. But the mutants aren't going down without a fight.
1. Acknowledgements

**Summary: There are millions of places like The School all around the globe. Scientists from all over select their best experiments and put them together to see which one fairs the best in a variety of cruel tests and trials. But the mutants aren't going down without a fight.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride**

**Thank You**

**Storm0Wolf**

**h3rmi0ne**

**Ghost132**

**xXAdventureTimedaBossXx**


	2. Prologue

"Why are we having this in New York?" Doctor Murphy asked. He was walking with another scientist, Colette Martin, towards the elevators. Peter Murphy was a tall man of about 30, but looked much younger than he really was. "Every time something big happens they always have to put it in New York. It's not like there aren't other big cities all over the world we could use instead."

Due to the fact English wasn't her first language, Colette usually had some difficulty understanding certain accents. Doctor Murphy's heavy Irish tongue was proving to be quite troublesome for her. But she got the general idea most of the time.

"They have the biggest labs." she explained as they reached the elevator. "The most equipment, money, resources...and it was their idea."

"It's still a stupid idea." Peter grumbled, hitting the button to take them to the 2nd floor. Colette kept her mouth shut and starred at the floor. But she couldn't agree more that this was a catastrophic idea. She was just an intern, 25 years old, new to the world of these cruel experiments. When she signed up for this she had no idea how gruesome these tests were. Colette was under the impression they were approved scientific trials. Safe testing to try and improve humankind. She thought they were testing on animals for most of her first month because they were so good at hiding what they did. They reworded and twisted things to make what they did sound justified. Now she knew what was really going on and she was in too deep to quit.

"What do they expect to happen?" Peter asked, shaking his head in disapproval.

"They're looking for the right one." Colette stated. Peter gave her a confused look, waiting for her explanation.

"They can't keep failing anymore. They need an experiment they know is going to work." She elaborated. "They need one that's going to survive all of the rest."

The elevator dinged and the silver doors opened revealing a long hallway. Peter walked up to the second door on the left and scanned his ID, unlocking the door. Then he nodded goodbye to Colette and headed into the room. White walls were lined with equipment and machines lighting up with graphs and charts and making various buzzes and beeps. There were dividers set up in many places, making it look a bit like a maze. Many scientists like herself dashed around, fiddling with the machines, and music echoed through the room. Doctor Murphy walked in the direction of a short woman with her hands on her hips and an angry look on her face, then the door closed behind him. There were rooms similar to that one lined up in the hallway for all of the different teams of scientists. Colette took in deep breath, adjusted her glasses, and marched towards her destination. She passed the fifth door on the left that belonged to her group. Towards the back of the hallway there was a red door. She scanned her ID and it unlocked. Steep stairs spiraled down for what seemed like forever, but Colette knew it was only about 4 floors. You couldn't reach the room by the elevator. She quickly climbed down the steps, passing five doors and two doctors on her way down, until she reached the little blue door at the bottom. Again, she scanned her ID, then entered a 6 digit password. This back room was fairly large and she was the only one in it. Normally the rest of the building was loud and humming with life, but the only sound Colette could hear was her shaky breathing. Set up along either side of the room were empty cells. Each one had black walls except for the one facing the center of the room. Glass that could hold any force known to the scientists was put in instead of a wall as a way to see inside the cells. Here, kids from all around the world would be kept and observed. This was the only room in the entire building where they wouldn't be tested on, only watched. Tomorrow each one of the cells would be filled.

Colette felt sick to her stomach just thinking about it.


	3. Hazel

The firm ground was cold underneath her skin. It felt nice; the labs always seemed to be scorching hot. It had felt nice to sleep for a while and she didn't want to wake up so soon. She slowly opened her eyes and saw the fuzzy image of a cement wall. She remembered being forcefully taken out of her cage, but had no recollection of how she was put into a new place, or where this place was. Right then, she didn't really care. Her entire body felt weak. She just wanted to curl up on the nice cold ground and go back to sleep. So she squeezed her eyes closed again.

"Hey!" An unfamiliar voice hissed. "Are you awake?"

Hazel shot up quickly and whirled around to the source of the voice. The action cleared her head and she quickly took in her surroundings. She was in a cell, in a room. She was facing a glass wall where she could see identical cells lined up along the wall of the room. She assumed the same set up was on her side, and she had cells next to her. The cells were small, she almost hit her head when she sat up. The walls to the left and right of her were far enough apart for her to lie down if she bent her legs a bit. The left wall had a gate on it in front of the wall. But the most peculiar thing about the place was the people filled inside each of the cells. Hazel leaned forward, pressing herself against the glass to try and see more of the people. She realized that they were mutants her. Hazel locked eyes with the only other one who was awake. He was one cell to the left of the one directly across from her. He looked about 13 with shaggy blonde hair and dark glasses.

"Hi." He said, giving a shy smile. He had an accent Hazel noticed. American but somewhere in the south, she thought.

"Hi." Hazel whispered cautiously. She looked around the room again. It seemed like all the boys were on the opposite side of her. Why was no one else awake?

"Girls on one side boys on the other. I woke up a few minutes before you. They must have drugged us or something." The boy explained. Hazel nodded in response. She didn't notice that the boy answered her questions without her asking because someone else started to wake up next to him. He seemed older than her, and looked a bit intimidating with his compact muscles. He grumbled under his breath before jumping up and banging his head on the ceiling. Hazel couldn't help but smile as he let out a frustrated "Ow!"

She covered her mouth, trying to hide her amusement. "You alright?" she asked.

The boy nodded rubbing the back of his head. He laid back down and leaned against the wall without a gate. He had olive skin and short black hair. She could see the wings on the smaller boy but couldn't tell what the other one's mutation was just by looking at him.

"Shark." The smaller one piped in. Hazel turned towards him and the older guy got confused look on his face.

"What?" They both asked at the same time.

"He's mixed with a shark." The little boy explained. He looked down at the dog tag around his neck in an attempt to avoid eye contact with Hazel. She was about to ask how he knew that when someone else began shuffling around in the cell next to hers. The blonde haired boy perked up when he saw whoever it was awake. "Nyah?"

"Hunter?" she called. Hazel couldn't see 'Nyah' but she had the same accent as the boy and sounded young.

"We're from Atlanta, Georgia. She's 12 and a half."

"Stop that!" Hazel snapped, making everybody jump. Just then the boy across from her started to move.

"No. Go back to sleep!" she barked, she wasn't getting interrupted again. She turned back to the boy she assumed was Hunter.

"I don't care how you know what I'm thinking, but cut it out." She shouted with more venom in her voice than she intended. "I've already had enough people in my mind, I don't need any more."

The boy looked offended and she realized she probably sounded harsher than she had meant to. By then most of the rest of the group had come round and were groggily making sense of the situation.

"Please, just stay out of my head." She whispered in a kinder tone. The boy nodded, seeming to understand her frustration.

"Am I allowed to wake up now or would you like to scream some more?" The boy she had yelled at asked sarcastically. Hazel rolled her eyes and said with equal sarcasm. "No I'm not done yelling at children, you have to stay unconscious."

He let out a little laugh before sitting up and looking around. "Well this is..." He started, searching for the correct word to describe their predicament. He sounded Scottish. "…Anybody know where we are?"

Hazel shook her head and the rest of the room gave a chorus of 'no's. The boy nodded. He looked around her age, with a messy mop of brown hair and bright green eyes. He gave a goofy smile that showed off his dimples.

"Okay," he sighed leaning back against the wall of his cell casually. "Better get to know each other then. I'm Damon, already met Hunter and Nyah." He looked around the room waiting for the rest to introduce themselves. After a few seconds of silence he huffed "Hunter, what are their names?"

"They don't want me to tell you." Hunter replied.

"It's just a name." Damon groaned, throwing his hands up. "I'm just trying to be nice."

"Australia, what's your name?" He asked. Damon smirked at her and raised his eyebrows awaiting a response. Hazel narrowed her eyes at the nickname. She thought about making a mocking remark but decided against it because the boy would just give her one back.

"Hazel."

"There we go, that wasn't so hard."

"Twitch." A voice to the other side of me whispered. The rest of the group turned to look at her and Damon asked "What'd you say?"

"My name's Twitch." The girl repeated louder. It really bothered Hazel that she couldn't see the people in the cages next to her. For all she knew Nyah could look like a purple zebra with ears twice the size of her face. She could have horns that shoot fire or teeth like needles.

Hunter let out a small giggle, obviously reading her thoughts and imagining his friend with these odd mutations.

_Out!_ Hazel thought angrily.

"John." The boy that hit his head stated.

"Kan." A boy Hazel hadn't noticed said. He had the cell on the other side of Hunter, but he was pushed up against the back wall and all Hazel could see were his white wings shielding him from her line of vision.

"Em." An Irish girl who must have been next to Nyah answered.

"Em, Nyah, Hazel, and Twitch." Damon clarified, pointing to each cell. "Then Kan, Hunter, me, and John."

He seemed satisfied with himself, as if finding out everyone's names was a giant accomplishment. Then, without warning, the walls on either side of the cell slid down, leaving just the gates. Hazel yelped and backed away, but nothing else happened after that. She looked over to Twitch who was staring back at her with frightened brown eyes.

"What the hell?" Hazel asked no one in particular. Surprisingly she got a response.

A French woman's voice came in over a speaker from somewhere in the room. "Part of the observation part of the experiment, investigates how you interact. The walls will come back down if you try to damage the gates." There was a soft beep at the end of her message, then silence.

_Oh right, the experiment_, Hazel thought. Scientists from all over select their best experiments and put them together to see which one fairs the best in a variety of cruel tests and trials. _It's a mutant beauty pageant._

Hazel rested her head against the gate that separated her from Nyah. Nyah turned out not to have big purple ears, she seemed like the youngest of the group. She had dark brown hair in a straight bob cut and beautiful black wings stuck out of her back. Nyah, Hunter, and Kan all had wings and Hazel envied them a little for having a mutation that pretty.

A couple of minutes passed before Hunter and Nyah stared rambling away. Apparently they had escaped and been free for a period of time and then got captured again and transferred here. Damon and John started talking as well. So far she liked Twitch and Kan the best because they were the only two who were quiet and not annoying. She looked over at the Japanese boy who was wrapped up in his wings. He looked maybe 15. Most of his body was covered by his wings but she could still see his face. He had a pale complexion and deep yellow eyes. He noticed she was staring at him and looked down at his feet. So she turned her attention to her right. Twitch was pale with long muscly limbs. She had long blond hair with small spots of black. Hazel didn't notice it at first but cheetah ears poked out through her hair. It matched the cheetah tail that was swaying slowly. Twitch must have sensed her staring at her and looked up at her.

"Cool tail." Was all Hazel could think to say.

Before Twitch had the opportunity to respond the door at the end of the hallway opened and a group of people came marching in. They walked two by two and when the front of the line reached the back of the room they stopped and turned to face our cells. Hazel instinctively moved to away from them and grabbed onto the gate. The man directly in front of her smiled and she could see his sharp k-nines poke through.

Not good.

**AN: So that was the first official chapter. I hope you guys liked it. Let me know what you think.**


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